1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resist processing method and a resist processing apparatus for forming a desired resist pattern on the surface of a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer or an LCD substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
For instance, in a photolithography process of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the surface of a semiconductor wafer (referred to as a `wafer` hereinafter) is first coated with a resist. And after exposing the wafer coated with a resist, the wafer is then developed.
Conventionally, as publicly known by the Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 2-30194, these resist coating and developing processes are performed according to a predetermined sequence before and after an exposing process, within a complex processing system equipped with each corresponding processing units in one system.
However, recently, the resist pattern formed upon the wafer is required to be finer, and a severe control upon the line width of the resist pattern has become inevitable.
Such control concerning the line width of the resist pattern is now carried out, for example, by a worker measuring the actual line width of the resist pattern on the surface of the wafer brought out from the resist coating and developing system, with an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), and judging whether the measured value of the line width satisfies the required standards.